Awesome protests erupted in my school today. Our student council planned a “fun” game for valentines day. They handed out paper hearts to every girl at the beginning of the day. Only the girls. If a girl speaks to a guy through the duration of the day, she has to give him her heart. Guys get five raffle tickets for every heart they collect. Girls cannot collect hearts, they only have one to give away, and guys do not have to give away anything. A gay male asked for a heart to give away to particip
ate and was told no.

Some girls have taken this as an invitation to say things such as, quoted from twitter, “keeping the whores from talking today haha.” And boasting about “keeping their heart and not being a whore.” This has turned into an excuse to shame each other for talking to guys. And for what? A valentines game?

Rather than writing their names on the hearts and
giving them away, many girls have written notes of protest on the paper hearts and are wearing them proudly as they associate with whoever they please and refuse to give the heart away.

Proud of some of the people in my school today.

males are rewarded for collecting female “hearts” and are encouraged to collect as many as they possibly can, but females are only allowed to have one heart to give away, and when they give it away they’re not allowed to play anymore

the correlation of “hearts” to how virginity/sex is treated in society is kind of eerie and definitely sexist

This is a really big deal! My elementary had us do this for Valentine’s Day one year. Girls were given a prize if they kept theirs, boys were given a prize if they got one. The boys would harass us - verbally, getting into our personal space, or pulling our hair - until we told them to stop and then they would get to take the heart.
A lot of us were pretty mad about it at the time, and now that I see the implications of it, I’m even angrier.

ALL THIS COMMENTARY AND ALSO SOMEONE GIVE THESE KIDS A METAL

Double standards, sexism, misogyny, and oh what a great message to send to kids growing up…sigh.

I’ve never heard of this silly game before, I hope it doesn’t go elsewhere.

Today’s black history month post is about The Proud Family. The show was created by Bruce W. Smith, the director of Bebe’s Kids. It was the first animated series on cable television to revolve around a black family, and aired on Disney Channel, later doing reruns in the Centric network. It was originally piloted for Nickelodeon. The show was produced by Smith’s Jambalaya Studios.

The series revolved around Penny Proud and her family (father Oscar, mother Trudy, sisters Bebe and Cece, her Suga Mama (played by Jo Marie Payton, who played Harriett on Family Matters), and uncle Bobby) navigating everyday life. They lived in a town managed mostly by the obscenely rich Wizard Kelly, a former basketball player. Penny’s adventures usually involved
her friends Lacienega (Alisa Reyes, All That alum), Zoe (Soleil Moon Frye, who played Punky Brewster as a child), Sticky (Orlando Brown from That’s So Raven), and Dijonay (Karen Malina White, who recently played the character of Carla in How to Get Away with Murder).

The show had many celebrity guest stars, including (click to see their character): Mariah Carey, Mo’nique, Kel Mitchell,Ashanti, Dante Basco, Mos Def, and Steve Harvey. The theme song was performed by Destiny’s Child along with Solange Knowles, who guest starred in the episode Behind Family Lines as Penny’s cousin Chanel. Cedric the Entertainer had a recurring role as Uncle Bobby.

The show ran from 2001 to 2005, and ended the series on The Proud Family Movie, which guest starred Omarion. The series dealt with serious but important topics such as racism, disability, discrimination, black history, poverty, and politics, as well as typical sitcom topics like school crushes, family reunions, and arguments with friends. The show was unafraid to touch on aspects of black culture and history in America, and was notable for its episodes on subjects like segregation and hate crimes.

The show has won awards from BET, the Image Awards, and the NAMIC vision awards. It’s been nominated for several Annie Awards.